Win On Diagonals

I re-echo some of the thrust of the writers evaluation of ‘Problem Radical’s.’ At times this play made me viscerally  angry, an anger devoid of any redeeming tension brought on by some perplexing and fatiguing yet engaging interplay between text, sound, general art direction and so forth.

 

One should not try the intermedia play thing for TWO HOURS unless you have something, anything, to bring some sort of fluidness or ‘bonding’ to it. There was something twistedly mundane about this two hour  wading into a paste-board avant-schlock ‘opera.’ There were some strong acting performances, particularly when actors were working together  (seldom seen ). Sure, I dug some of the writing, and at times interesting sing-song fleshy-automatism redolent in the the delivery of lines. Hey man…. I like experimental theatre ok!  The constiuents parts of the perfromance only excerbated a siren like redundancy about it’s essential movements. 

 

 I also enjoyed the costumes, that added some great visual interest.  Sadly, these interesting costume changes became a bit overwhelming and therefore added to the overall underwhelming effect of the play in general. ‘Got nothing to say, or do, or someone to interact with…? Just change your F$&(#$! clothes.  These incessant changes seemed to further add a touch of ouch to a painful performance.  The play was a punctuated cold slap of inchoateness that struggled so hard to make a critique . ..a statement, paint a picture... of WHAT? : The reification of everything, inter-era urban problems, dehumanization of work, lifestyle calcification in the dilapidated future-past-present ?

 

Finally, that extremely predictable gluing of sheets of paper on the board upstage that eventually showed us a couple in a flying saucer, in some ways exlemplified what this play radiated overall: a rather staid and predictable set of programmatic images playing at frenetic art, a static image of a UFO that will never fly , it’s passengers abandoned. The final composite image was all glued up quiete  The music was just a lot of bombastic chugga riffage that hardly corresponded with what was going on, which would be impossible, because nothing really happened.